It's likely that the reason is that many businesses and integrators that have deployed or built solutions around iPad have done so around the dock connector. Apple is obviously maintaining the availability of that model so that those businesses can continue to deploy them while they update their solutions for lightning.

It's common for many vendors to do this where they have a large business or enterprise market, it's not so necessary in consumer where everybody wants the new shiny.

Not every business is agile enough to deploy an entirely new interface technology overnight, likewise the iPad2 is unlikely to be supply constrained and businesses can continue to purchase it readily, where the iPad3 and Mini will be difficult to obtain for a month or so following launch.

rubbish. if apple didnt want customers to buy the ipad2, they wouldnt continue to sell the ipad2! seriously people. brains, use em. they continue to offer a mid-level product because they want to capture the mid-level market in addition to the upper and lower markets.

I categorically disagree with characterizing the iPad 2 as a "mid level" product. After the latest announcement, it is 2 generations old, and it has an obsolete dock connector.

Apple would continue to sell the iPad 2 -- if they wish to clear out their inventory.

IMHO, Apple has one too many sets of SKUs in their iPad line, and the 2 is the odd man out. It will be gone in early 2013 -- if not sooner.

Apple supply older hardware only until a product has been released that fills the same niche. Unless it's a professional product in which case they will drop it like a hot rock just because.

Apple are just acting like pricks here and no amount of anti-Android rhetoric masks that fact. Siri could work on an iPad 2. People have got it to work on an iPad 2. Apple can very easily allow it to work on an iPad 2.

They choose not to purely for sales and marketing purposes. They've done it before and they will continue to do so. Restricting a feature purely to give a newer product a minor marketing advantage is Apple MO.

The other fact worth noting here is that Siri is borderline useless on an iPad and just a novelty act. It has limited response information as it is on a phone and serves mainly as a hands-free system. On the iPad, a device which always sits in your lap, voice control is pointless.

Oh man, the sense of entitlement and the childish whining is almost too much.
Are people happy? Do they feel well looked after and valued because the device they paid for three years ago(!) is still getting new, improved features for free? Most of them, yes. But others, not so much. They moan. They’re like children at Christmas, surrounded by presents, crying because one thing they wanted isn’t in the pile.

Are you kidding me Zunjine? Do you really expect most on here to be rational? This is MR, home of the privileged apple fan. They want it all, they want it now because after all, they are entitled right? Gotta remember this too.... this is also the home of folks not able to make up their on decision about anything. Asking help with the most basic life decision like which color or size to get.

Never try to be logical here on MR, you'll just be frustrated and want to go on a multi state killing spree.

Not offering some new features (e.g., Siri) to older devices is not "planned obsolescence" because not adding new features doesn't stop your old features from working – the device is no less useful than it was the day before these new features were released for newer devices.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:

Planned functional obsolescence is a type of technical obsolescence in which companies introduce new technology which replaces the old. The old products do not have the same capabilities or functionality as the new ones.

What's even more damning is that Apple didnt even bother to introduce a technical improvement to the iPad Mini to be able to excuse it from having Siri.

Apple is going to spend no money refreshing the obsolete port on this unit, and they'll do noting to support Siri on this model. That's the evidence that Apple is discouraging the purchase of this model.

I think the choice by Apple to continue to leave the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 without Siri is mostly for marketing reasons as others have suggested.

As for the arguments that the microphone is not good enough or that the processor or wireless data is not fast enough on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4, how does this explain why the new Google App voice search function works flawlessly on these older devices. Adding insult to injury it is even noticeably faster than the Siri on my iPhone 5.

I was confused by this at first. Why keep the iPad 2 around? Then the answer hit me: the iPad 2 must have continued to sell well over the last seven months. There can be no other explanation. If it weren’t selling well, Apple would have dropped it from the lineup. But because it is selling well, they’re keeping it in the lineup, because they don’t know why it’s selling well. If it’s only because of the lower price, the iPad Mini might obviate it. But perhaps it’s not that people want the least expensive iPad, but instead that they want the least expensive full-size iPad.

But the key is that the iPad 2’s non-retina display has not kept it from selling well alongside the retina iPad 3. For many people, retina resolution is nice-to-have, not must-have.
[...]
If the Mini had a retina display, I’d switch from the iPad 3 in a heartbeat. As it stands, I’m going to switch anyway. Going non-retina is a particularly bitter pill for me, but I like the iPad Mini’s size and weight so much that I’m going to swallow it.

In other words, Gruber prefers the Mini to his iPad 3 -- and the only factor for preferring the 3 is the retina display. He sees no advantage for the 2 over the mini.

Once Apple sees the numbers for the holiday season, they will decide if phasing out the 2 is the way to go. It seems like a slam-dunk: consumers will prefer a smaller and lighter package -- for less money.

In a year, we'll have a large iPad, a retina iPad mini, and the current iPad mini for a low-cost intro model.

As for function, voice dictation is quite handy on an iPad2 (which I have and use all the time). I really don't care for the on-screen keyboard ... I use a blue tooth Apple keyboard when I want to do a lot of typing. Great keyboard.
But, maybe you could go EZ on the strong opinions ... not worth much to me.

How do you use Voice Dictation on an iPad2, if it has not Siri...?

PS: im on ios5, dont know if ios6 comes with voice dictation on an ipad2.

It was included on all new Macs, yet existing Mac owners had to buy it in the App Store. Why was that? What a rip off, right? Typical Apple greed, you say. Well, hold on a second…

It turns out there are legal issues that prohibit "adding significant functionality" to an already existing device. They couldn't give away FaceTime to existing Mac owners who already bought their computer, they had to sell it to them through the App Store to meet this legal requirement. Something to do with FCC filings, or some such nonsense.

And before you ask why they "brought it" to the iPad 3, clearly they included this contingency in their filings as existing functionality, even though it wasn't ready to be included at launch. They haven't charged for iOS updates in years, and you can't sell a Siri "component" through the iOS App Store, not that they would even want to put a price on it if they could.

I think this is simply an excuse. Other companies add significant functionality to their devices without charging the user all the time. Microsoft in particular adds many features to its products at no cost. The xbox 360 has gained many features since its release - many of which were likely not planned for from day 1.